Cannes Lions
EAR TO THE GROUND, Manchester / PLAYSTATION / 2023
Overview
Entries
Credits
Background
For a quarter of a century PlayStation, the world’s biggest games console brand, has sponsored the UCL, the world’s most elite club football competition.
Every May, the eyes of the world turn to the UCL Final, making it a pivotal moment in PlayStation’s brand marketing calendar.
In Paris, after two seasons of COVID-restricted finals, SIE wanted to go bigger and better than ever before, aiming to own the pre-match hype and strengthen PlayStation as the console of choice for football fans.
Specific campaign objectives included:
- Create authentic and unexpected content at the final to engage young football and gaming fans
- Increase PlayStation sponsorship awareness among UCL fans
- Be the most talked about sponsor in the week of the UCL Final
The impact of the campaign would be measured through the specific social KPIs of impressions, reach, views, engagement, and share of conversation.
Idea
To own the hype and conversation around the final, PlayStation needed to dominate feeds and cut through at one of the noisiest periods of the year.
This could be achieved in two ways. Firstly, by creating the type of content that nobody else was; light-hearted, playful and unexpected. Secondly by showing up in places other brands and traditional media were not; creators’ channels.
The creative idea was to reimagine the traditional ‘brand house’ as a paradise of content creation. SIE would use the house to bring UCL icons and content creators together at the heart of the action in Paris. Bringing their audiences on the journey with them, creators would collaborate, meet icons of the UCL, and take on exciting challenges.
PlayStation House would be the home of unexpected moments at the UCL Final. A bricks-and-mortar space designed for global content creators and UCL icons to meet, collaborate and play.
Strategy
The UEFA Champions League is defined by the best players; the biggest stadiums. It’s a serious business. But with PlayStation’s unique cultural appeal, there was an opportunity to bring something different.
SIE’s strategy for the season was to inject some irreverence and playfulness into the sponsorship to engage with younger audiences.
This not only gave them a distinct point of difference from other UCL sponsors but felt more ownable and authentic to a brand that has ‘play’ at its core.
SIE also understood football fandom and consumption habits have changed and their target audience of young football and gaming fans now experience the biggest moments and fixtures online and through non-traditional media.
Using talent and creators’ platforms to spread content would put PlayStation at the heart of the UCL Final conversation in exactly the spaces where their audience was having the conversation.
Outcome
PlayStation House was a global cultural moment, welcoming a global audience in the millions who lived the experience vicariously through their favourite creators.
Delivering on the main campaign objective to own pre-match hype and conversation in the week of the final, PlayStation won a 50% share of voice across UCL top-tier partners and enjoyed 8.5k Google search mentions.
Results:
- 387.8m Impressions
- 289m reach
- 172.6m views
- 9.3m engagements
Content was shared across global creators, footballers, and media including BT, CBS and TNT, as well as UEFA, Bleacher Report and PlayStation.
PlayStation House contributed to an uplift in the 2021/22 season for PlayStation sponsorship awareness (+23%) and improved PS5 preference and consideration.
The success of the activation saw it repeated in Salt Lake City at NBA All-Star Weekend and it is planned again for the 2023 final in Istanbul.
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